Holidays on farm have had a significant impact on the economic structure of mountain farms in Austria. The activities started with the upcoming mass tourism in the 1960s, not yet as a special segment but in the frame of private B&B offers. During the 1980s a specialised product ?holiday on farm? was developed and institutionalised as an association.
The aim of the paper is to describe the nature and amount of changes this new economic activity has brought to the farm. The analysis covers the different periods in the development from the beginnings to present day.
Most significant impacts on farms are found in the following fields:
- Investments into the household were effected earlier than in other farms as tourism required a certain infrastructure.
- Involvement in tourism introduced the use of new communication technologies earlier than on other farms
- Tourism provides for the first time cash income for farm wives. This has influenced the gender relations and roles on the farms
- Tourism provides possibilities to separate living quarters of different generations on the farms
- The socio-cultural interaction with guests, mostly from an urban background, resulted in significant changes of the world view, often especially of the younger generation.
- Tourism impacted on the appreciation of farm products, influencing also consumption patterns of the farm members
These impacts are analysed according to changes in the relations of gender and generation. It is apparent that the activities of holidays on farms are to a large extent female dominated. They mark the first broad wave of commercialisation of female-work in agriculture.
The paper provides an empirical case study on development of farm holidays in the province of Tyrol, Austria, based on a context analysis of the major regional agricultural newspaper, the ?Tiroler Bauernzeitung? covering the period from 1966 to today. Besides this view on the general development, the provincial association ?Urlaub am Bauernhof? (holidays on farm) is analysed in detail by a number of interviews with various stakeholders and the analysis of relevant internal documents
